The only poster by Lautrec that relates to photography, the poster depicts the lively Paul Sescau photographing the Moulin Rouge dancer Jane Avril. She is dressed in a flamboyant red gown while she holds a lorgnette in her black-gloved hand. The woman’s contracted and shrinking attitude, suggesting that she is fleeing from the camera, is an ironic comment probably intended for Sescau, who ‘used his studio mainly for seduction.’ The woman’s dress, designed with a repeating pattern of question marks, could be said to add irony to the message” Julia Frey’s interpretation is even more explicit and interesting: “Sescau... who was reputed to use his studio primarily for sexual liaisons, is completely hidden under the black cloth of his camera, but the cloth itself dangles between his legs in a long phallus-shape, and the elegant woman of his focus seems to be trying to flee.”
